Auto News 5

This vehicle is virtually identical to our Four Seasons 535i, except it has xDrive all-wheel drive, the presence of which is quite difficult to detect in normal, dry-road driving. All things being equal, I’d probably prefer my 5-series to have all-wheel drive, but the truth is, I spent a very snowy weekend in our rear-wheel-drive 535i this winter, driving through six inches of fresh slushy white stuff in the Chicagoland area, and that car was unstoppable, because it was equipped with excellent snow tires. Adding xDrive to your 535i subtracts one mpg from both the city and highway fuel economy figures, making them 19/29 rather than 20/30 mpg; and it adds $2300 to the base price. The weight penalty is pretty marginal, though; the 535i xDrive weighs 4233 lb versus the rear-wheel-drive 535i’s 4090 lb.

Monday, May 23, 2011
1193 miles, 5:50 PM
I'm starting my week with the Nissan Leaf, which is sitting, fully charged, in our parking structure, showing a range of 102 miles. After only two miles on the road, that range has already plummeted to 77 miles, based I guess on my aggressive driving, because I'm late to my core training class across town.

Months in Fleet: One
Miles to Date: 3219

In the ever-changing automotive market, there are a few evergreen nameplates that sell massive volumes year after year. The Toyota Corolla and Honda Accord are the traditional volume winners, last year selling a combined 639,185 vehicles , to put that in perspective, there are more Corollas and Accords sold each year than there are residents in the state of Vermont.